If he's a member of The Squad, he'll either enjoy killing a bit too much or suffer anguish over the fact that he has killed and must continue to kill. If this is ever explained, it's credited to his former civilian occupation being one that abhors death and destruction. Often, this is the member assigned to carry the BFG.

His quietness may be a reflection of deep psychological problems. Otherwise The Quiet One just comes across as cool, calm, collected, and slightly above the madness of their universe; a less vocal Deadpan Snarker.

You might expect The Quiet One to be a loner, but unless he's the Aloof Big Brother, that's hardly ever the case, probably because of the assumption that Loners Are Freaks.

Different from The Voiceless in that The Quiet One can be seen talking occasionally, not just once during some special moment. Unsurprisingly, he isn't likely to be partial to small talk, and may have an enigmatic non-answer for any questions people might ask him.

Keith Gandor from Baccano! has been known to go years without talking, and as such the resident Knowledge Brokers have been known to forgo their usual $500 fee if he says more than five words to them. Yes, Keith's words are so rare that they have monetary value.

Ran-mao from Black Butler is Lau's bodyguard and most loyal sidekick, she speaks very little or at all in some cases. Although her speech is restrained she has a habit of showing off her impressive figure towards men, her stoic expression makes it hard to tell if she likes pleasuring others (and herself) or not?

Chad sometimes speaks in monosyllabic noises. It's been lampshaded in the story, where Chad has been accused by Ichigo of stopping a story half-way just because he felt he was talking too much. The anime takes the joke even further, a filler arc pairing him up with the equally quiet Noba, resulting in Kon yelling at them for wasting screen time by saying nothing. Even his sweatdrops are subdued.

Nakeem only ever spoke once in the manga, even when fighting Rangiku. In the anime, he spoke twice.

Tsumiko is the only member of the Sword Five who never says a word and the lower half of her face, like the rest of her body, is completely bandaged over.

In the Zanpakutou Tales filler arc, there are several silent characters:

Katen Kyokotsu is a twinned zanpakutou, so has two female spirits. The smaller female is a ninja-esque characters who, aside from a few muffled noises here and there, never says a word.

Tenken is mostly silent, only speaking once the entire arc.

Wabisuke usually communicates by rattling his chains. He only speaks twice the entire arc.

Mogi from Death Note. Subverted slightly as he is forced to become an overly enthusiastic manager, and worries that it suits him too well. He starts to talk more once Soichiro Yagami dies.

Kamemon in Digimon Savers. The PawnChessmon count too, but they never actually talk on-screen.

They do in episode 26, but it seems to be limited to a few clicks.

Future Trunks from Dragon Ball Z could be counted as this, he doesn't even call out his attacks. As a result, the various video game adaptations have had to make up their own names for his moves.

Also Android 16. Though he does call some of his attacks.

In Endride, Felix starts out as the quiet one of the Ignauts, being of few words but quite quick with a knife. He's given a run for his money when the Tykebomb Mischa joins the squad, both of them having traumatic pasts contributing to their reticence. They mostly only converse to compete over their Undying Loyalty to Demetrio.

Dakichi Komusubi can also be considered one since he rarely says anything beyond grunts or one word sentences.

Kenshiro from Fist of the North Star acts this way most of the time. Most of his lines are less than five words long, and he usually has less than 10 per episode, despite being the main character.

Sousuke Sagara from Full Metal Panic!. Especially noticeable in the Burning One Man Force novel, with his interactions with Nami and her group. After every victory in the arena, the group always has festive celebrations with beer and drunk chatter. And every time, he'll always be sitting away, quietly sipping his water. Nami, having a crush on him, tends to watch him yearningly. Numerous times, she tries to go over and talk to him, but every answer from him tends to kill conversation. It's worth noting that none of that is because he particularly hates anyone or is that mean - he just has zero social skills.

This is defining character trait of Kotarou from Gakuen Babysitters, who doesn't speak as much as the rest of the toddlers and conveys most of his thoughts with nods, head shakes, and non-intelligible "ung" noises.

Gungrave: Brandon Heat. So much so, he was often mocked by other characters for being such a man of few words. He only usually has one or two lines per episode, and in the video game, with one exception, he says nothing at all.

Yuki Nagato from Haruhi Suzumiya, who's also The Stoic. The only person she has a normal conversation with is Kyon. She rarely ever talks to anyone else, and often simply ignores the person or resorts to simple hand gestures. Most of her "dialogue" in the novels is simply "...," represented in the anime as prolonged silence without moving.

And, of course, this all depends on your definition of "normal conversation". Yuki speaks to Kyon, but she never says an unnecessary word.

To get an idea of how little she acts, her staring at Kyon and Mikuru playfully flirting is considered a great deal of emotion from her.

In the original episode "Someday In The Rain", Yuki spends about a third of the episode on-screen, but neither Minori Chihara or Michelle Ruff are credited...because she doesn't speak throughout the entire episode.

Jo from Innocent Venus. Sana is afraid of him at first because of his reticence, but it turns out that he's the nice guy of the group.

Chino from Is the Order a Rabbit? always speaks in a soft voice. Lampshaded when Lize tries to teach her to speak commandingly so as to create a presence that will make up for her lack of height, and Chino can just barely raise her voice above her usual volume.

Occasionally, Ryu Sanada of Kimi ni Todoke will speak in whole sentences. But not often.

Sawako would also fit this trope if the story was told from anyone else's perspective, but since she's the protagonist and we hear a lot from her, it's averted in her case.

Zafila /Zafira: trainees in StrikerS didn't even realize that he could talk until their second mission. Although, he's something of a Large Ham when in battle.

Bardiche. He talks less as much as Raising Heart (even less in the movies, while Raising Heart got even more lines). The Forwards lampshade that Bardiche is a really quiet Device. However, Teana thinks his silence is one of his greatest things of him. Doing things through action and not words, protecting his master as her weapon at all times.

Veffidas from Macross 7 has 5 lines tops throughout the entire series but whenever she talks, she usually has a point.

Also Trowa Barton. There are fanfics claiming that he maintains a "words per day budget" and will resort to sign language if he runs out.

Monster: Johan Liebert tends to be completely silent as someone who's with him is running their motor mouth.

Mayu Morita in Morita-san Wa Mukuchi, which means "Morita-san is silent." She never says anything in any episode. We do hear her thoughts and sometimes see someone's reaction to what she just said but in all instances on screen she at most will nod or shake her head.

And Rei for that matter. Especially on the moments that she suddenly decides to speak to Asuka.

She is character that is made from The Quiet One cliche and helped to codify it. Internet has term for character inspired by her Dandere (dan=silent, dere=sweet). Althought Anno wants to mock the trope, she popularized it.

Though he enjoys conversing to people, Kawayanagi from Ojojojo is so quiet because he's no good at starting conversations, and the few people he's talked to never talk to him again. He slowly opens up to Haru after enjoying (and admiring) the self-centered conversations she makes with him.

Robin in One Piece. She is not as heavy of a case anymore, though, but certainly was when she had just joined the Straw Hats - probably because she didn't want to open up to her new crew because she believed she would leave soon. But even nowadays, she is not that talkative unless the conversation really interests her, she needs to give a warning, or if someone asks her for exposition.

Subverted by Takashi "Mori" Morinozuka from Ouran High School Host Club. He is physically large and doesn't say much, but what he says is pretty mundane most of the time, not to mention how he tends to have a personality change on rainy days or if he's sleepy. This trope was, however, invoked by Renge who tried to cast him as one in a Dating Sim style movie.

Trip/Shooti Pokemon Best Wishes fit. And compared to Ash's otherrivals, it really stands out. Especially in BW041 where there are many competitors in the tournament that are either talking about the battle or cheering for one side. Trip just sits by himself in the back with his own opinions that he doesn't bother giving to anyone as well as look down to ignore lame battles (he looks up when Ash's battle gets his attention though.)

Maggie from R.O.D. The TV. Has a habit of "nesting" with piles of books in small, enclosed spaces.

Doc Saito from Tiger & Bunny speaks very softly. So softly in fact, that he requires subtitles for the viewers to understand him. Unless he's on the intercom or using a speaker, in which case he's ear-screechingly loud.

In Toriko, Melk the First is said to be a quiet, shy man. He's actually very talkative, its just that he literally talks so quietly no one can hear him.

Shiori from The World God Only Knows, as present in the page picture. She is only quiet because by the time she knows what she wants to say, there is nobody to talk to, but that also means any word she says on the spot, without analysing it countless times beforehand, is significant. And when she is allowed to prepare a speech in advance, she is quite a talker.

YuYu Hakusho's Hiei tends towards this. Chuck Huber, his voice actor, told a humorous story in the commentary; he once watched an episode of the show with his family, and all Hiei said through the whole episode was "Hn."

Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's on the other hand, this treatment is given to the main character, more or less. In the very first episode, Yusei Fudo didn't even open his mouth until near the end. And as tradition, his first on-screen words were "Hey... duel me."

Rise Matsumoto, the Student Council President from Yuru-Yuri does talk, but she talks so low, and quiet, it's pretty much impossible to make out her sentences. Only Nishigaki-Sensei has no trouble hearing her, for some reason.

Comic Books

In the The Authority: Kev series, Kev's squadmate Tiny talks very little... because he's been struggling with suicidal thoughts for years.

Cass Cain (Batgirl II) from Batman speaks little and mostly with short words. This is the result of her father raising her without talking to her or letting her hear people talk, so that body language would be her language. Even after magic fixed this, she was never comfortable with words. If Cass is being talkative, the only explanations are brainwashing or bad writing (which will become brainwashing later via retcon).

Strongbow, from Wendy & Richard Pini's ElfQuest. Talks aloud, but not often; he's far more prone to using the elven telepathy called "sending." Non-elves, or elves who don't know how to send, find him to be a very taciturn fellow indeed. His unfriendliness towards outsiders doesn't help. See also The Stoic.

Redlance could also qualify, but for the opposite reason: he's quiet because he's shy. His partnership with the more outgoing and assertive Nightfall is a classic case of role-reversal, and they're both perfectly comfortable with it. (Also it's implied that when it comes to sex he does a 180 and goes completely wild.)

In Noob, Battos had his first line of dialogue in comic 10, despite debuting in comic 4 and getting a few lines in the webseries and novel versions.

Omega from Omega The Unknown, who says nothing for the first few issues, though he eventually deems it important enough to ask a suicidal woman how she could conceive of ending her existence, and opens up a little after that.

X-23 in her very first appearance in the comics, NYX, has only a handful of panels in which she says anything, and the rest of her companions consider her a Creepy Child as a result. She has perhaps even fewer lines (and none in English prior to the last two issues) in her origin series, Innocence Lost, where she's arguably the Decoy Protagonist and its her mother/creator Dr. Sarah Kinney who's the main character. In fact it's the abuse she suffered in Innocence Lost (along with the loss of her remaining family to protect them in Target: X) that led to her near-muteness in NYX. Though she starts opening up more after joining the X-Men, she nonetheless tends to be The Stoic of whatever group she's in, and speaks generally sparingly at best.

True to her character in Batman, Cassandra Cain's style of speech in Angel of the Bat is highly simplistic and only has any real length to it when the plot absolutely demands it, though she is definitely more eloquent than in canon.

Miyako Morino of Despair's Last Resort mentions that she's not the talkative type upon her introduction. She's rarely seen talking, even during the trials and when the number of students gets lower.

A blind Satsuki in the story titled Feel and she's only spoken once, when she was a toddler, generally being described a someone who "speaks when she wants to", thus communicating nonverbally, however, we hear her thoughts and ruminations on some matters. Naturally, coupled with the fact that she is blind, people tend to assume she's deaf. When she does finally speak in chapter nine, she really does have a lot to say.

George Harrison in The BeatlesReal Person FicWith Strings Attached; he had that rep in Real Life, and in the book he's somewhat quieter than the others for two reasons: 1) he spends much of the First Movement meditating and trying to figure out God's plan for sending them to this strange planet (he ultimately concludes that God didn't do it), and 2) he becomes a shapeshifter and is often not capable of speaking.

Actually, Ringo Starr is something of a Quiet One as well, since when he's deep in mindsight he rarely speaks. Though he makes up for it because he often has to give long soliloquies to explain what he did offscreen.

The blacksmith Amaru in Warriors of the World: Soldiers of Fortune. He speaks about a total of five or six times in all 35 chapters and only when it's about something important. The rest of the time his best friend explains why this is so, and speaks for him.

The main character of Code Geass Colorless Memories Rai counts. Rai rarely speaks more than a few words when asked on most matters, often only speaks when spoken to and tend to keep to himself. Justified due to being Amnesic, Fish out of Water at Ashford and later in the Black Knights.

Film

Babe's Farmer Hoggett. "The man who in his life had uttered fewer words than any of them knew exactly what to say. 'That'll do, pig. That'll do.'"

When Radio Rock DJ "Midnight Mark" is introduced in The Boat That Rocked, Quentin says of him "Hardly ever speaks. Not even when he's broadcasting, which is...interesting."

DJ the Doctor from Event Horizon rarely talks, and when he does, it's normally somewhat intimidating. There's a reason he's the one who's allowed to play with bone-saws.

Gaear Grimsrud from Fargo is an almost mute character, though he is also a demented sociopath.

Matsu, the protagonist of the Female Prisoner Scorpion series is very quiet. She says little in the first film (one of her lines is "you talk too much"), but the second is her most sparse; she's onscreen for most of the 92 minute runtime, but says only eight words across two sentences. By contrast, Yuki in the first film seems to be literally mute.

Snake Eyes from G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. The low sigh he utters at Storm Shadow's apparent death is the most he's ever said in any continuity.

In Iron Man 2 Vanko is notably very quiet, especially when compared with Tony or Hammer. In several of his most prominient scenes, Vanko says barely anything at all; most notably, during the climax, his only words are a simple "You lose." at Tony.

Mad Max becomes this towards the end of the the first film after Jessie and Sprog die, only speaking when he feels necessary. It carries over to the second and fourth films as well. He's a little more talkative in the third.

James Coburn's character Britt (the knife-thrower), with 11 lines total during the 128 minute-long film Britt's lines are also invariably short: in his introductory scene he says a total of five words. The scene is 2:28 seconds long. 21 seconds into it, he says "You lost." 1 minute and 17 seconds later, at 1:38, he says "Call it." At 2:20, in response to Chris saying "Britt.", he says "Chris."

Boba Fett has only a few lines and spends most of his screen time posing ominously, which is a major source of his following.

The antagonists in each of the three original Terminator films don't really say much. The second movie plays with this, as the T-1000 actually does get a decent amount of lines at first while the T-800 doesn't say too much like the one from the original. Then after The Reveal that the former is actually the villain while the latter is the hero, the T-800 begins talking more frequently, while the T-1000 is almost entirely silent for the rest of the film, only having two really brief conversations from that point (four if you count when it's taking someone else's form).

In Things Change, the humble cobbler Jerry is passed off as The Man Behind the Man. Because Jerry is an old, dignified and quiet man, the local mobsters instantly buy him as a man of confidence and power.

Brian Slade from Velvet Goldmine, despite being the main character and basically the subject of the movie, has surprisingly sparse dialogue throughout. When he does talk, he's almost always talking in riddles or quoting Oscar Wilde. Also Jack Fairy, who doesn't say a word until the Death of Glitter concert.

X-Men: The Brotherhood members almost never speak. Mystique is silent but for one line early on, except when she's disguised. It's quite effective and adds to her, well, mystique. Sabretooth has two lines, Toad has three.

A farmer tells the new farmhand: "I don't talk much. If I give you a nod, you'll come." The farmhand: "Guess we'll work together well, boss, 'cause I don't talk much either. If I shake my head, I won't come."

A boy never speaks. His parents, concerned, take him to doctors and specialists who confirm that their child is not mute and there's no logical reason that he should be unable to talk. For eight years, he says not a word. One night at dinner, however, he suddenly says, "Please pass the salt." His stunned parents stare at him, asking why he's never spoken until this moment. "Well," he replies, "everything was all right up until this point."

Two lumberjacks go to the forest early in the morning. One of them stumbles on some ice, and comments: "Slippery today." The two of them work all day without a word, and when they return in the evening, the other one stumbles on some ice and comments: "Sure is."

A cowboy comes up to his buddy:

"Jim."

"Yes, Bob?"

"What did you give your horse, when it had colics?"

"Turpentene." Later:

"Jim."

"Yes, Bob?"

"I gave my horse some turpentene, and it died."

"So did mine."

Literature

Benjamin, the donkey from Animal Farm. His enigmatic phrase is: "Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey."

Gry in Gifts, the first book in Annals of the Western Shore. Orrec has known her forever, so he can easily distinguish between Gry being silent because she's comfortable, or Gry being silent because she's upset. Her mother Parn is also a woman of few words.

Hettar from the Belgariad. But as one of the prequel novels shows, there's at least one worse; Algar, founder of Hettar's homeland, who could let days go by without talking. When asked by Polgara, "Don't you ever talk about the weather?", he just points to a window and responds, "What for? It's right out there. Go look for yourself."

The Silent from The Black Company. He speaks only once through entire series, when he performs ritual to bind Lady's powers.

Bill in Don't Call Me Ishmael! doesn't speak much, particularly in the beginning of the series. This is because he often zones out into his own world and because he has very low self-confidence due to being bullied for his weight. He becomes a bit more talkative when he makes friends with the rest of the debate team.

Mac, from The Dresden Files. Getting words out of him at all is rare, and if you see him speaking in actual sentences, you know things are very, very serious.

In Changes, he speaks an entire paragraph. Harry is completely floored by this, and not just because of what he said.

Hendricks, Marcone's top bodyguard, tends not to say very much either. The short story "Even Hand" lampshades this, implying that Hendricks actually talks a lot, and about profound philosophical matters; he just doesn't do it in front of Dresden.

Given that he's demonstrably as smart as a human, Mouse the foo dog probably qualifies: the only time he's barked since he was a puppy was when he needed to rouse a building full of endangered civilians from an enchanted sleep. At most, the huge dog will sigh or chuff quietly to express himself.

Ulath, from the Elenium and Tamuli series. He's actually very intelligent, but tends to respond quite cryptically and briefly with one or two word comments. It's explained that he works out all the logical steps in his head, but sees no reason to share any more than the conclusion.

Then subverted when he usually has to explain what his one-word outburst means anyway.

The titular character of Harry Potter is actually a man of relatively few words for most of the series. He is somewhat talkative when he is with only one person (like Ron, Hermione or Dumbledore), but in large assemblies, he doesn't say much unless he really feels the need. It is, however, a trait often overlooked by readers because Harry is also the (third person) narrator and thus, you "hear" him all the time even when he doesn't talk. It seems be a mixture of a bit of shyness (mostly in the first book) and that he simply often prefers to listen and observe rather than speak. In situations when he has to take up the leadership mantle, he becomes more talkative, and thus he has mostly gotten over his quietness when the last book rolls around.

Vincent Crabbe and Gregory Goyle are a duo of this trope. While Draco Malfoy delivers all the verbal insults, they do little more than act as muscular bodyguards and laugh stupidly at those on the receiving end of his snark. In fact, the reader never gets to hear either of them speak in person until towards the end of the very final book, and it is indeed stated that Harry had "hardly ever heard [Crabbe] speak before."

The title character of the Horatio Hornblower books. Granted, he's an English naval captain from the early 1800's, so isolation is part of the job, but Hornblower takes it beyond what would normally be expected because he's so cautious and self-conscious about saying something that might bite him later. He makes a point of never indulging in "unnecessary words."

We all turned to look at her. She was visibly annoyed. “I’m not mute,” she said. “I just don’t talk much. This deserves comment of some kind.”

The narrator of the novel One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a physically imposing man who pretends to be deaf and mute. Between his deliberate silence, his hallucinations and his distorted view of himself and others, it is assumed that he has schizophrenia.

Shane Drinion in The Pale King. When he does speak, he has a lengthy, thought-provoking conversation with Meredith Rand and completely throws her off her game.

Amy from The Passage is a subversion as, being a six year old girl, she's hardly physically imposing. Then she becomes a vampire.

Beka Cooper of Provost's Dog. At first it's because she's a Shrinking Violet; as she gets older and more experienced in Dog work she loses the anxiety, but she never becomes a chatterbox either. However the effect is somewhat mitigated since her books are in the form of a diary and so she's always 'speaking' in first person.

Second Apocalypse: Lord Kosoter, aka "Ironsoul," is the captain of the Skin Eaters band of sranc-scalpers. Achamian quickly identifies him as one of those sort who begrudge every word. When Achamian tries to negotiate with him, Kosoter's sergeant Sarl pointedly speaks for him. Whenever Kosoter interjects in any circumstance, there's a palpable moment of panic from his men.

Winnetou, the Apache chief from Karl May's novels. When these were adapted into films, actor Pierre Brice at first complained that he had so few lines compared to Lex Barker as Old Shatterhand, but soon came to realize that by acting instead of speaking and by his dramatic presence he actually made a greater impression on the audience.

Live-Action TV

On Angel, Wesley becomes a lot darker and quieter as the seasons progress, most noticeably in season four (part of this may be a result of getting his throat cut. The scar is visible for a long time afterward, so it's possible that too much talking is physically painful for him).

Even in his early days on Buffy, though, Wesley was only really talkative when he was trying to impress people or make himself look good. When he wasn't being an insufferable show-off, he was actually fairly quiet.

Kosh of Babylon 5 barely ever speaks at all, when he does it's generally a sentence fragment, and fragmentary or not, it rarely makes any sense. Interestingly, his most powerful statements are usually his shortest as well, in large part because they generally make more sense than usual. Often the emphasis he puts on words carries more meaning than the words themselves.

We see the Hidden Depths behind his silent demeanor when Buffy is granted telepathy and overhears Oz's thoughts:

(thinking): I am my thoughts. If they exist in her, Buffy contains everything that is me and she becomes me. I cease to exist.

(aloud) "Huh."

Lampshaded like crazy in "The Zeppo."

Xander: But I mean, what is it? How do you get it? Who doesn't have it? And who decides who doesn't have it? What is the essence of cool?

Oz: Not sure.

Xander: I mean you yourself, Oz, are considered more or less cool. Why is that?

Oz: Am I?

Xander: Is it about the talking? You know,the way you tend to express yourself in short, noncommittal phrases?

Oz: Could be.

Angel's not known for his talkativeness, either; lampshaded when the two chat:

Angel: Oz.

Oz: Hey.

Angel: Nice surprise.

Oz: Thanks.

Angel: Staying long?

Oz: Few days.

Doyle: Are they always like this?

Oz: No, we're usually laconic.

In Fargo, Ohanzee Dent, the favored retainer of the Gerhardts, doesn't say much, probably because he's spent decades suppressing his feelings about having to be the "pet Indian" to a brood of German thugs. This, of course, makes it all the more shocking to the Gerhardts when he sets them all up to be wiped out by state troopers.

The Haitian, of Heroes fame, was speechless in most of his early appearances and many of his later ones. He refuses to reveal his given name and, since he speaks so rarely, one wonders how everyone knows he is from Haiti.

Horatio Hornblower: In "The Even Chance," Lieutenant Chadd appears to be a fairly prominent character who hardly opens his mouth, and mostly he only grins or looks worried, awed or amused, as the situation requires. He spoke exactly twice. First when he ordered his men to fire guns, and second when he got a splinter in his arm, he allowed Doctor Hepplewhite to take care of Hornblower's sailor ahead of him because the poor guy had lost his leg. Chadd dies during their next battle on a French ship which they boarded.

The badass priest "Mr. Eko" from Lost does not speak for forty days after he kills two of the "Others" in self-defense.

Marilyn Whirlwind from Northern Exposure speaks few words, and when she does it's barely above a whisper. She stands out in a show filled with kvetchers (Joel), blowhards (Maurice), and philosophical chatterboxes (Chris).

Power Rangers has its fair share of this trope in the following seasons:

Molly also isn't a chatterbox, but has had her occasional moments where she's annoyed, or upset.

In the first series of Skins, Effy Stonem only spoke twice - and she was incredibly intriguing as a result. In the later series, she talks progressively more often, although she continues to maintain long periods of silence and usually speaks less than the other characters. Nevertheless, most fans preferred her as The StoicIce Queen and grew increasingly disappointed with the character the more she spoke.

He did become more talkative as time went by (presumably from spending so much time with humans), so much so that the commentary on an early episode of season 9 had the director joking that Teal'c had spoken more in the first few episodes of that season than in the previous eight seasons combined.

James May of Top Gear, though it's mainly 1. relative to his two chatty co-presenters, 2. all the better to set up a well-aimed deadpan snark when they have argued each other into exhaustion and 3. can result in a Precision C-Strike (C standing for 'cock').

Multiple Media

Technically all of the ice-characters in BIONICLE, but Kopeke especially. Since he got appointed to be the official Chronicler, it's likely that he's more wordy in his writing. Onua, an Earth Earth character, is also known to only speak up when necessary in most of his appearances.

Professional Wrestling

Randy Orton seems to fit this trope. While he cuts promos and talks to other wrestlers like his fellow sports-entertainers, he doesn't do much trash-talking in the ring, and a lot of his "interviews" (especially as a heel) are Orton simply being asked a question and responding with one word ("No..." or "Pain..." or something of the sort), or responding by... not responding. He'd simply stare at the interviewer and then walk away.

Everyone by now knows Christian to be a bit of a Loud Mouth...but before that happened, he and Edge were part of a group known as the Brood (a gimmick of pseudo-vampires). He didn't even speak the first few months...until Ken Shamrock ankle locked him into revealing where Stephanie McMahon was during the Ministry of Darkness era.

The Undertaker is also one, unless he's cutting one of his amazing promos.

Kanako Urai, better known as Kana in Japan and Asuka in America rarely speaks and often resorts to a Slasher Smile to get her point across. Part of the reason why she does this (in WWE NXT as least) is because she doesn't speak English all that well.

Radio

Fred Norris of The Howard Stern Show. Although he's in the studio, his job is sound effects, and they'll often do more talking than he does. When he DOES talk it could be just a quip or a punchline to jokes or impressions or even responding to Howard or Robin. If you even DARE insult him or call him on something, run he has been known to react VERY strongly to criticism, sensitive issues in his life among other incidents, once Howard looked in his bag and Fred nearly quit the show after an ugly outburst.

In Warhammer 40,000, a Space Marine chapter's Honour Guard are said to speak and advise little, as to not undermine the authority of the Captains despite how they are likely even more experienced than them, but this gives their words considerable weight to all of their battle brothers, even the Chapter Master.

The Dark Angels and their successor chapters are known for this. They rarely speak to anyone outside of the chapter, and in one noticeable instance, the entire Consecrators Chapter deployed en masse and relieved an Imperial Guard force by fighting for six straight hours and killing the enemy's leader without sending a single transmission to the guard.

Theatre

Thomas Jefferson is portrayed like this in 1776, in light of Adams' claim that he "never heard him speak three sentences together." The first time he speaks without prompting, he saves Adams and Franklin from their flailing for an excuse to delay voting by giving a clear, concise reason why they need to write a Declaration of Independence first.

Frankenstein's monster is this in Die Reise Ins All, especially when he is first met.

Serph from Digital Devil Saga would be a Heroic Mime if not for certain cutscenes when the player is given a choice of lines of dialogue for him to speak. Interestingly, the other characters sometimes comment on this; in the first game, Heat notices Serph has been silent for a long time and asks him to say something, and in the second, Gale tells him "It's alright, you don't have to say anything."

Cloud of Dissidia: Final Fantasy canon seems to fit this trope, with other characters going so far as to praise him for his calm and collected mindset. He also speaks relatively few words to the other Warriors of Cosmos, not to mention it seems like he's always in a perpetual contest with himself to see how he can express a thought in as few words as possible when he does speak.

During the ending, he almost shows off his laconic attitude. Everyone is saying their goodbyes (in reverse series order):

Squall: Maybe we can go on a mission together again sometime. (disappears) Cloud: Not interested. (disappears)

Sten, in Dragon Age: Origins, is very much like this. He's extremely intelligent and deep, but doesn't chat much except in certain situations. There is a point when he monologues a bit with the player character about the nature of mages, and the Warden can respond by saying that it was the most words he/she ever heard Sten say. Sten's Deadpan Snarker reply: "I've been saving them up."

In-universe materials seem to indicate that most Qunari are like this when they aren't speaking their native tongue. Since they pride themselves on doing everything perfectly, the prospect of possibly committing a linguistic error mortifies them.

Until the fifth chapter of Duel Savior Destiny Rico is almost silent and when she does speak it's nearly inaudible. This is because without a proper master she burns through her lifespan when she takes action. Once this is taken care of, she becomes simply soft spoken.

The Mysterious Stranger from the Fallout series. Clicking on him produces only two floating text balloon statements: "I will help thee." and "I don't talk much."

Auron from Final Fantasy X is a stoic, taciturn man who chooses to only talk when it is important. Kimahri speaks even less, and that's not counting giving the protagonist the silent treatment at the beginning of the game.

In the Japanese version, Fujin talked in only one kanji at a time. It's not a bad English equivalent.

Her last line of dialogue in Final Fantasy VIII is (in both versions) relatively long and spoken normally. In addition to highlighting the importance of what she has to say, it surprises the other characters, who presumably thought she was incapable of normal speech.

FFVIII's main character, Squall, is also not much of a talker, particularly early on when his Jerkass Façade is at its strongest, to the point that "Whatever," and "..." are his Catch Phrases. Since the game allows the player to listen in on his Inner Monologues, the reasons for Squall's silences become increasingly more apparent as the game goes on.

For a villain, Sephiroth is surprisingly non-chatty when you reach him for the final battles at the bottom of the Northern Cave in Final Fantasy VII. In fact, he doesn't say a single word.

Gerome, a wyvern rider from Fire Emblem Awakening is also not as talkative as the rest of the second generation characters. He also states that conversation and charisma are not his strong suits. His specialty exists on the battlefield.

Beruka from Fire Emblem Fates is an assassin who is not very talkative, and when she does talk, she tends to speak in very short, clipped sentences.

In Fleuret Blanc, you're unlikely to get anything other than grunts and terse sentences out of Masque. In a subversion, he can actually be quite the chatterbox if you engage him on a topic he actually cares about; however, the list rarely extends past masks.

In a mix between this and The Voiceless, as her name suggests, Quiet from Metal Gear Solid V is not only a less talkative character, but is in fact entirely mute capable of only a few subtle noises due to the parasites infecting her. Besides being rather unpredictable at first, Quiet eventually shows her softer side even if she is a former enemy. The reason why she is on this page is that the player finds out later that she can speak other languages, particularly Navajo, she prefers not to speak in English because it would activate her vocal cord parasites.

The Main Character (Minato) from Persona 3 fits this trope to a T. To elaborate, Minato is a Heroic Mime and never actually heard to speak (outside of summoning his Persona). However, the player is able to choose dialogue options for him when speaking to others. None of these options are ever more than one sentence long, and other characters have commented on his quietness.

However, the motives of the Persona 3 and Persona 4 heroes having so many '...' options are implied to be different from their subtle characterisation with the former appearing to not care about things, while the latter tends to have it available more when it will spare feelings or the situation is awkward. In Persona Q which involves both casts, this trope is inverted as the P4 hero talks in the P3 route and in the P4 route the P3 hero talks which also highlights the contrast in personality when you see how each one does speak.

Red Faction's protagonist Parker almost never says anything although it may be because he is too busy shooting Ultor's minions. The only time he says things are doing the few cut scenes in the game.

The player character from Saints Row 1 has exactly four lines in game, each spoken during the final cutscene of a chapter. Other than that, s/he doesn't say a word. S/he becomes more vocal in the later games however, stating that his/her quietness was due to being a lackey.

Likewise, Shin Megami Tensei IV's main character Flynn is noted to be a man of very few words. He very rarely opens conversation, and when he responds to questions, he's implied to be very direct. The game itself lampshades this with The Bartender, who notes he's very rarely seen someone who talks as little as Flynn.

Henry Townshend is listed in the Silent Hill 4 manual as a "quiet individual who never lets his feelings show." Apparently he's (mostly) capable of saying "What...the hell..?"

Kratos from Tales of Symphonia. He has emotions, they're just not obvious at first glance.

Team Fortress 2: Radigan Conagher, the Engineer's grandfather, is "a man of many ideas and few words."

This is what the official bio for the Heavy claims him to be. He cheers up once he starts mowing people down with Sasha.

Though other mediums (including the Russian dub of Meet the Heavy) suggest this is more a language thing.

Iceman, from the original Wing Commander easily qualifies, save one cutscene where he's oddly chosen to play Mr. Exposition. It's said that even when he does speak, he does so only barely louder than a whisper, and you have to listen closely to hear him.

In Boozle, the eponymous protagonist doesn't say much, and when he does, his speech bubbles contain only images or icons. Still, the other characters seem to understand him just fine (although Bitsy does comment that his speech sounds funny).

Kanryl of Ears for Elves fits this, possibly because he spends most of his time with animals.

In The Inexplicable Adventures of Bob!,Roofus the Robot is probably the least talkative castmember, and he's nearly monosyllabic when he does speak. He's also probably the least intelligent of the regular cast (apart from wacky neighbors like Floyd and Heywood), though he comes across as one of the most soulful because he is so quiet. "Will I see the sky... when I am off?"

X of A Magical Roommate has never once spoken more than four words or six syllables in a single panel.

Paradox Space has Die of "The Inaugural Death of Mister Seven." He's a shameful mobster who's always caught in some embarrassing incident, and spends most of his time mumbling an explanation, only briefly raising his voice to inquire about chickens, before trailing off into mumbles.

Akryung from Tower of God only communicates with a cackle that creeps everybody out.

Naim, from UC, so very much so. It’s so bad that the only way Iku even found out his name was by breaking into the school records.

Web Original

Ray Narvaez Jr. is, or at least was, this for Achievement Hunter. While he talks as much as everyone else, he's less hammy on the whole. Vocal Evolution eventually kicked in and he became more energetic, at least until 2014 when he was understandably annoyed by his Twitch account forcibly being taken over.

Teardrop from Battle for Dream Island. Though she has spoken, however that was with the other contestants when they all shouted "Cake At Stake" in the finale.

Jennifer O'Connell from Behind The Veil communicates entirely through written notes, sign-language and text-to-speech programs, but only because of psychological reasons (her parents were killed in a car crash and she was trapped in the car with them for several hours because she had been paralysed for years and couldn't escape herself). She is still capable of speech, and recently began talking to her stepmother, but limits herself to short sentences.

Kamimura from Broken Saints, apart from his internal monologues, is not the most talkative guy around. Of course, his limited knowledge of English, the language spoken to and around him for most of the series, could be part of that.

Evek is the most silent of the Freelance Astronauts, but then, given his competition, it's not exactly a hard title to achieve.

Sabastian in The Graystone Saga hates talking. When narrator Tobiah asks him questions, he answers with as few words as possible - and occasionally, none at all.

Fantöm from Noob doesn't speak much and sometimes seems to have developped his "I see" Verbal Tic as a conversation filler.

While not quiet per se, Maine of Red vs. Blue comes very close to this trope - mainly because he almost never makes noise, and when he does he sounds like a Predator. Part of this is due to being shot in the throat during a mission (which we see in the prequel portions of Season 9) so he's actually physically incapable of speech, but it's established that even before that he very rarely said anything.

DaveChaos of the Yogscast tends to say little when doing multiplayer content with the others. Granted, this could be because he's often with Simon Lane, the noisiest member by far.

RWBY: Lie Ren is very quiet and speaks by far the least often out of any of the main characters. Lampshaded by Jaune:

Jaune: You're quiet. I mean really quiet. And I don't actually know that much about you. But darn it, I consider you to be the brother I never had! long pauseRen: And I, you.

Western Animation

In The 7D barring Dopey who cannot speak but uses whistles and other sounds to communicate, Bashful and Sleepy are the least talkative of the dwarves, Bashful due to his shy nature and Sleepy due to being asleep half the time, some episodes have one or both of them having a line or two or remaining silent throughout the whole cartoon.

In Animaniacs Wakko is the least talkative of the Warner siblings as in some segments he doesn't say anything.

As a reference to how she hasn't spoken in the twenty years she's been a background character, Maria from Arthur is presented as this in her Lower-Deck Episode. She prefers to write her replies when Ratburn calls upon her in class, was a mime on Halloween, and Arthur has apparently never even heard her speak. It turns out she has a terrible stutter and, despite seeing a speech therapist, is very embarrassed of it.

On the DVD commentary, the creators said that when they were looking for a VA for Zuko, they were looking for someone who could say one word but imply a lifetime of suffering. He was a man of few words for the first two seasons.

In the episode "Inside the Outsiders," there's a flashback dream sequence to a time when she was chattier. It's revealed that she doesn't speak in the present in order to honor her sensei's memory... and because she blames her loose tongue for indirectly causing the sensei's death.

Of the main trio in Camp Lazlo, Clam is the least talkative of the three. Most of his lines are just one-word repetitions of what others have said. In fact, Word of God stated he was intended to be totally mute, but changed as the creator felt it wouldn't work well.

Applejack's brother Big Macintosh, which his younger sister Apple Bloom attributes to extreme shyness. In most instances, he only communicates by saying "Eeyup" or "Nope" in response to direct questions. At virtually all other times, his remarks are either similarly short and concise, directed at someone he's exceptionally comfortable talking to (such as Applejack in the beginning of "Applebuck Season"), or meant to convey his displeasure.

Speaking of shyness, Fluttershy is the least talkative of the Mane 6 because of this. There's been quite a few episodes where she only has a line or two at most and several where she's completely silent for the whole episode.

Princess Luna seems to be turning into this somewhat, most notably in the season 4 premiere. Whenever the two sisters share a scene, she tends to let Celestia do most of the talking.

Brenda from Perfect Hair Forever almost never speaks. She does, however, battle cry on occasion, and she said something in Japanese exactly once.

Ferb from the Disney cartoon Phineas and Ferb, who, despite being one of the two main characters, generally only speaks once or twice per episode, expressing himself the rest of the time through nonverbal cues. These lines tend to be either the most random or funniest of the episode.

And like everything on the show, this is lampshaded to death. In the first episode he's introduced as being "a man of action". In the episode "Candace Interrupted" he says two conservative lines, prompting Phineas to say, "Well, aren't you chatty today."

The most lines Ferb has ever said at once can be seen here. Watch and be amazed.

The eponymous character of Samurai Jack is one of these; there are several episodes in which he never speaks. He didn't speak much as a child either; of the five flashback episodes to his childhood, he only spoke in one of them.

Ice Bear from We Bare Bears rarely says more than a handful of terse sentences in the space of a single episode. In a few episodes, such as "Everyday Bears" and "The Road", Ice Bear doesn't speak at all.

Apocalypse from X-Men: Evolution, in contrast to other versions of the character. Despite being the Big Bad of the last two seasons, he never speaks at all until the Grand Finale, and then his dialogue consists entirely of terse orders for minions or blunt statements of superiority (almost all delivered telepathically). One gets the sense that he simply dislikes lowering himself to speak to common mortals.

Real Life

U.S. President Calvin Coolidge was famous for this, even gaining the nickname "Silent Cal". There is a longstanding joke that a woman at a party came up to him and said, "Mr. President, I just bet my friend that I could get you to say more than two words." Coolidge looked at her and said, "You lose."

Which is derived from another Real Life incident in ancient Greece, but with a Spartan.

Indeed, we get the term "laconic" from "Laconia," a shortening of "Lacedaemonia", referring to the region in which Sparta lies, and often used to refer to Sparta itself.

The story goes as such: An emissary from Philip of Macedon (father of this guy) goes to Sparta and reads a long speech: "If we enter your lands, then we shall impale your men, violate your women and slaughter your children, burn your granaries, and put all priests to the sword..." and so forth. The Spartan king doesn't say anything until the end, when he replies: "If."

In The Beatles, George Harrison was often considered the 'quiet one' being overshadowed both by the songwriting genius of Lennon & McCartney and the good natured clowning of Ringo Starr. Later, when he was allowed to write songs, he proved his innate talent was the equal of his comrades with 'Something' and 'Here Comes The Sun' amongst others.

John Entwistle, bassist for The Who, would later claim the title of "the quiet one" for himself - while his bandmates would flail wildly about the stage and destroy their instruments, he stood still as a statue, single-mindedly playing his bass, and rarely opening his mouth. He would eventually write a song called "The Quiet One" about himself.

Craig Jones of Slipknot has the title of The Silent One, choosing to never show up for interviews and never answer any questions when asked.

Pata of X Japan and Ra:IN. Generally seems quiet and sleepy, is the least showy member of his bands. Is also one of the most skilled who's had the least drama out of either.

Ira Hayes, one of the six flagraisers at Iwo Jima, was described by friends and family as this. He was still especially quiet even though his particular tribe didn't push talkativeness.

In Moneyball, Michael Lewis tells a story in which one of the scouts for the Oakland A's cultivates this image. Humorously, when he finally does speak for the first time in two days, what he says turns out to be completely inane.

Brazilian band Kid Abelha has Bruno Fortunato, who is practically the band's Garfunkel - Paula Toller sings and looks cute, George Israel writes the songs, plays many instruments and sometimes sings (not to mention working with other musicians)... and Bruno only plays the guitar. Hell, in the band's website, he doesn't even use the space that would be his blog.

Helmuth Count Moltke, who masterminded the Prussian campaign against Austria in 1866 and the German one against France in 1870/71, was known as "der große Schweiger" (the Great Silent).

Eric Wilson of the band Sublime. In the band's RockumentaryStories, Tales, Lies, and Exaggerations Wilson does talk, but he gets no where near the screen time of fellow bandmate "Bud" Gaugh. Several interviewers have described him as quiet, but having great presence.

Introverts, especially IxxPs on the Myers-Briggs scale, tend to act like this.

John Deacon of Queen. When the band was together, he never sang on the albums and only answered questions in interviews if they were specifically directed to him. After Freddie Mercury died, he dropped out of the band and, aside from one single released in 1997, retired from the music business entirely.

Mixed martial artist and UFC champion Chuck Liddell used this as his image. Nicknamed the "Iceman", he remained stoic and confident in and out of the ring, choosing to let his knockouts speak for him rather than a lot of brash talk. His success and character made him the UFC's biggest star even to this day.

Marshawn Lynch, the Seattle Seahawks running back is notorious for being difficult to interview, at one point answering every question with "I'm just here so I don't get fined."

Jeff Hanneman was known for being very reserved and private. While the other members were more than happy to socialize and hang out with fans after shows, Jeff greatly preferred sitting on the bus and reading and would also seldom give interviews. When he wasn't touring, he preferred to stay at home and spend time with his wife; his bandmates seldom saw him outside of touring and recording.

Harrison Ford actually took up acting as a way of confronting his social anxiety. It shows in interviews that, while friendly, it's often difficult to get a word out of him.

Social Anxiety is one of the diagnoses for Asperger Syndrome/High Functioning Autism. Although it's conquerable, a lot of people with this condition remain quiet for many reasons but mainly out of fear for saying the wrong thing.

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